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The Church of the East & Its Theology: History of Studies

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The Church of the East & Its Theology: History of Studies Nikolai N. Seleznyov The Church of the East & Its Theology: History of Studies In touch with the Church of Antioch, the Church of Mesopotamia at­ tracted the attention of many Greek authors, first of all, those of the Eastern part of the Roman, afterwards Byzantine, Empire, who wit­ nessed the appearance of centres of theological thought in the Aramaic East. The writings of the Eastern authors were read in wider circles than those they were intended for. Thus, the Legend ofAbgar and the Teaching of Addai, documents referring to the very origins of Christianity in Mesopotamia, became widely known. The persecutions that the Christians of the East suffered under the Sasanids had an impact on Christians living in the 'Western lands', and Aphrahat, the first great author of the Aramaic theological tradition, who mentions the persecutions in his Demonstrations, soon became well known there. The Persian Schools of Edessa and Nisibin.' headed by Mar Ya'qob of Nisibis and his disciple Ephrem the Syrian (Mar 'Aprern Suryaya) won an (Ecumenical celebrity and played a decisive role in the formation of the Mesopotamian school of exegesis and theology, as well as in the gradually developing polemics between representatives of increasingly different traditions of the 'West' and the 'East' of the Christian world. The controversies, especially bitter over the Christological terminology and concepts, were abundantly reflected in the writings of many 'Western' authors. This period - when, in the arguments, different sys­ tems of theology were developed - concludes with the summarizing works of a prominent 'Melkite', the last Greek writer of the East, John of Damascus. After him, the polemical works of Byzantine-oriented authors, as it is seen in the writings of 'Abd Allah b. Al-Fadl al-Antaki, in­ troduced no new terms and formulas and dealt with a speculative 'Neste­ rianism' formulated earlier. The witness of Islamic religious comparative studies is therefore of some value. The confessions of different religious communities, includ­ ing the Church of the East, were analysed by Moslem researchers, ex- I Commonly known as Nisibis. OCP 74 (2008) 115-131 116 NIKOLAIN.SELEZNYOV ploring the religions in the Caliphate in the 9th to 15th centuries. This subject was touched on by such famous authors as Ibn an-Nadim (10th c.), Abu-r-Rayhan al-Bayruni (973-1048/51), Ibn Hazm (994-1064), as-Sahrastani (1076-1153), Ahmad al-Oalqasandi (1355-1418). Less known is a later work by the 14th-century Yemenite author 'All b. Muhammad b. 'Abd Allah al-Fahri - Kitab talhis al-bayan fi dikr firaq ahl al-adyan.! In the Moslem literature of the Ottoman era one can hardly find any work of this kind. Occasional testimonies occur in itineraries, mainly by pilgrims to Je­ rusalem. This material is rather extensive (4th to 14th c. there are more than thirty such reports) and insufficiently studied. Valuable observa­ tions for the history of the doctrines of the Church of the East could be found in journals of missionary travellers interested in confessional mat­ ters. The books by Giovanni di Pian del Carpine and Willem van Roys­ broeck, also known as Guillaume de Roubrouquis (in whose journal An­ dre de Longjumeau's travel notes are mentioned) are of special interest. They are followed by Marco Polo's book and the notes by Giovanni di Monte Corvino. The later testimonies of the European travellers to Asia could be related to this body of documents as well. It is also worth men­ tioning the journal of Jan Huygen van Linschoten (travel 1595-96)3 and the book by Nicolas Trigault (travels 1607-19).4 From the middle of the 15th century, the relationship between the Church of the East and the Western world is witnessed to by another group of documents. They appear as a result of appeals to the Holy See for the 'restoring of communion' made by separate communities of the Church of the East. The first appeal of the sort was made by Metropoli­ tan Timotheus of Tarsus, responsible for the community of the Christian refugees who had fled from Timur to Cyprus. On behalf of his flock, he presented a confession of faith and asked for reception into full com­ munion with 'the Holy Roman Church'." On 7th August 1445, this appeal was read out during a sessions of the council of Florence and, at the same day, the first union with the 'Assyro-Chaldeans' was proclaimed by the papal bull Benedictus sit Deus. From 1552 onwards, such documents appear regularly. That year, Yohannan Sulaqa, the prior of the monas­ tery of Rabban Hormiz,> was sent to Rome and, on his return, became the head of a hierarchy separated from the Patriarch of the Church of 2 0~~~1 ~I J) p~ J 0~1 ~ ,,;-,L:S '1S.;....J1.iJ1 ¥ .4> of.~' Moscow, 1988. 3 van Linschoten, 1596; 1598; Repr. 1885. 4 Trigautius, 1616. 5 Le Ouien, 1740, t. 2, p. 1292. 6 Voste, 1930, 1931; Rabbi, 1966, pp. 99-132, 199-230. THE CHURCH OF THE EAST AND ITS THEOLOGY 117 the East, but recognised by the Pope.? Later on, a similar separated branch was to become the so called Chaldean Church. In Europe, concern about the Christian presence in the Near and the Far East was increased not only by reports of the Catholic orders work­ ing there, but also by publications intended for a wider reading public. Thanks to one of these publications, undertaken by a Jesuit Athanasius Kircher (1601-1680), interested in exotic subjects of any kind, the oldest Chinese Christian monument - the stele of Xian-fu - was first pre­ sented to Europeans." The fact that two homilies of the Catholicos of the Church of the East Mar 'Eliya al-Haditi (1190) were published as an ap­ pendix to the popular Arabic Grammar by Thomas van Erpe (1584­ 1624)9 is indirect evidence of public interest in the field. Another exam­ ple of this kind was published by a learned Maronite Ibrahim al-Hakilani commonly known as Abraham Ecchellensis (1605-1664) Tractatus conti­ nens catalogum librorum Chaldaeorum, tam ecclesiasticorum quam pro­ [anorurn'? by Mar 'Abdiso' bar Brika. Occasionally, extensive studies of the Eastern Churches, also concerning the Church of the East, had be­ gun to appear, such as the Historia orientalis by a Swiss philologist and theologian Johann Heinrich Hottinger (1620-1667),II the relevant sec­ tions of the dictionary Bibliotheque orientale by a French orientalist Barthelemy d'Herbelot (1625-1695),12 and Histoire critique des dogmes des chretiens orientaux by a French biblical critic and orientalist Richard Simon (1638-1712).13 As previously unknown documents were gathered, a need for their analysis and classification emerged. This was undertaken by the scholars from a Maronite family of Assemani (as-Sim'ani), above all by Joseph Simon (1687-1768), the most illustrious of them. Sent by the Pope to the East for the purpose of collecting Oriental manuscripts, he accomplished his task zealously and successfully. Manuscripts from all over the Near East were brought to the Vatican Library, and a gigantic work that Joseph Simon planned to carry out - the Bibliotheca Orientalis - was to comprise twelve volumes of which only the first four appeared.!" He also 7Voste, 1930, 1931; Habbi, 1966, pp. 99-132,199-230. S Kircher, 1636. 9 van Erpe, 1656. 10 Ecchellensis, 1653. II Hottinger, 1660. 12 d'Herbelot, 1697. 13 Simon, 1711. 14 Assemanus, 1719, 1721, 1725, 1728. Several unpublished volumes, already largely prepared by the author, were destroyed by fire. 118 NIKOLAIN.SELEZNYOV began the six-volume series of works by Ephrem the Syrian, of which the first three volumes he edited himself." Probably impressed by the edi­ tion, Cardinal Nicolo Antonelli published the Sancti Patris nostri Iacobi episcopi Nisibeni Sermones that were in fact homilies by Aphrahat." An­ other member of the Assemani family, Joseph Aloysius (1710-1782), also prepared a series of publications concerning the Church of the East, among which the most significant were De Catholicis seu Patriarchis Chaldaeorum et Nestorianorum commentarius historico-chronologicus'" and a Latin version of Mar 'AbdlSo' bar Brika's Collectio Canonum pub­ lished by Cardinal Angelo Mai in his Scriptorum Veterum Nova Collec­ tiO. 18 The third of the Assemanis, a nephew of the two preceding broth­ ers, Stephanus Evodius (1707-1782) was a permanent assistant to his two uncles at the Vatican Library and took the post of the keeper of the Vatican Library after the death of Josephus Simonius. Among his works it is worth mentioning the Acta Sanctorum Martyrum Orientalium et Oc­ cidentalium, the first part of which gives the history of the martyrs who suffered during the reign of the Sasanian kings of Persia.'? and Bibliothe­ cae Apostolicae Vaticanae codicum manuscriptorum catalogus'? that was prepared in collaboration with Joseph Aloysius. The second and the third parts of the first volume of the latter were on the Syriac manuscripts. Alongside with the Assemanis' works, the Oriens Christianus by a French historian and theologian Michel Le Quien (1661-1733)21 should be men­ tioned and Histoire du Christianisme des Indes by Mathurin Vayssiere de la Croze, the librarian of the king of Prussia. These works, and above all the Bibliotheca Orientalis by Joseph Si­ mon, brought to light a great number of documents concerning the his­ tory and the theology of the Church of the East and summarised the great work that had been done up to that moment in collecting the mate­ rial, thus initiating a study of them as we would understand it. So began a long scholarly process of the extensive heritage of the Church of the East, made possible through a Latin translation, that continues into our time.
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